Inside Rosewarne House in Camborne that took ten years to restore to its former glory

It's been a labour of love for Elizabeth and Reg Price, and a money pit too after the weather and squatters damaged the property

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Elizabeth and Reg Price were finishing off a renovation project in Marazion, transforming the Ebenezer Chapel into a property they could sell for a large profit and retire on, or as they did, travel around the world with, when they were approached by a friend about Rosewarne House.

The grand Regency Grade-II* listed property in Holman Park just a stone's throw away from Camborne's high street had fallen into disrepair to such an extent no-one wanted to touch it.

"We had a look at it," Elizabeth said. "But it was derelict. It was a ruin with no roof so we decided not to buy it." Yet, 18 months later, when a bank asked the couple to make them an offer as they were trying to get rid of the listed but insolvent property, damaged by the weather and squatters, Elizabeth and Reg had another look at the grand house nestled within six acres of Victorian gardens, and the conservation architect in her just took over.

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"We made them a daft offer for £225,000 and they were all too happy for us to take it off their hands," she said. "There were so many issues like dry rot we couldn't even move in to do any work inside for five years. We had to replace the roof and dry the place out first. So I spent a lot of time dealing with the overgrown garden."

There are some gorgeous magnolias and rhododendrons and a 200-year-old arboretum in the park, and last year Elizabeth planted more than 130 rose bushes. The view of the garden from the anteroom and orangery is amazing and so is the long gallery with an alignment of rooms and doorways that gives the house its true scale.

As the property had been left to go to rack and ruin for so long, every single window had been smashed in, doors had been kicked in, historic architectural features had been destroyed, the roof had collapsed, lead had been stolen and all the electrics had to be redone after cables were ripped out for their copper.

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"I don't think there was a single pane of glass left in the house," Elizabeth said. "Every door knob had gone and one of the squatters had lit a fire in the middle of one of the rooms. We had to board the place up, hire security at £70,000 a year and install metal grills on the window so we could dry the place but stop squatters coming in."

Rosewarne House had been used as a crack den for so long that Elizabeth and Reg had to hire a specialist company to rid the garden of all the syringes and heroin needles.

Yet despite the years of toil ahead - the complete restoration took a full decade to complete and £2 million - Elizabeth fell in love with the place. The couple got planning consent to build two blocks of flats at the back of the property and convert a barn on the estate into a house so the cash it generated would pay for the renovation work. The money they made in Marazion and before that in London also disappeared into the all-consuming project.

"It is such a handsome house," Elizabeth said. "It's so masculine on the outside but it's so incredibly pretty and delicate inside."

Only one small room has not been painted as a reminder of what was there before the restoration work got under way. The Scagliola columns leading to the grand staircase have been restored. There are now fireplaces back in every room after they were originally ripped out by previous developers.

The original staircase which was dangerous to ascend for fear it would crumble away has been propped up with hidden steal beams and everyone of the 29 rooms has been returned to its past glory using specialist tradesmen from the Camborne and Truro area. Only the handmade crown glass had to be imported from Poland.

As one wanders through the rooms, it's hard to imagine the state of dilapidation the ballroom, the library one accesses via a secret shelf-door, or the orangery, were once in.

Where a lift once was in the days when the house was home to the National Spastics Society, a disability charity now known as Scope, a metal spiral staircase sourced from eBay stands that leads people to two further rooms that can be rented out. There is a nook at the top that offers a nice view over the whole estate.

"I have spent the last ten years trying to find furniture and decorations on eBay and Marketplace for this house because all the money has gone into the renovation," Elizabeth said.

Down below, hidden under a trap door in one of the new kitchens, are low vaulted cellars which once led to the historic family's own chapel on what was a much bigger estate property at least 27 acres in size. There are rumours that some of the now blocked off tunnels even led to the coast and were used by smugglers. But as the nearest beach is seven miles away, that boast may be just that, another legend of Rosewarne House.

Erected between 1810 and 1815 by the landed gentry Harris family which made its fortune through copper mining and smelting, Rosewarne House is said to have been designed by one of the disciples of London's most famous architect of the age Sir John Soane, who is famed for designing the Bank of England.

Rosewarne House's patron was William Harris of Rosewarne who served as High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1773 and married the heiress Mary Rowe of Trelill in Wendron.

Their daughter, Mary Harris, inherited the estate in 1815 but the ownership of the large and profitable portfolio which included warehouses and businesses and land in various parts of Cornwall soon became the subject of an intense acrimonious litigation case.

In 1819, Mary Harris, who had been prevented from marrying her first love, married instead Berkshire barrister Winchcombe Henry Eyre Hartley in Paris. He was the age of her own father and had been married before and had five children. The marriage being an unhappy one, Mary returned to Cornwall with her one-year-old infant son in 1824. Her husband died in Rome on his Grand Tour later that year.

Mary's inlaws and their relations had her and her son declared lunatics and imbeciles which meant they were prevented from inheriting their own ancestral home or marry again.

Tragedy struck Rosewarne House in October 1868 when Mary, who had gone mad from solitude and social isolation, styling herself the Duchess of Cornwall, was found ablaze in her room having accidentally set herself on fire. She died the next morning. Her son, known as Mad Harris, soon lost the estate to a distant relative of his father, one Dutchman Lucien Stanlaw Van Grutten who sold the lot and took the money to America.

The house fell into disrepair until it was acquired by the Holman family in 1911 who made their fortune from mining drills that were used in mines in Cornwall and around the world. That's when the house undertook its first renovation. It sits in what is now known as Holman Park.

The Holmans moved out in the sixties and the house, known as Gladys Holman House, and became a care home. It was also fire proofed with tonnes of Asbestos which had to be removed safely and was abandoned again for years until ten years ago when Elizabeth and Reg decided to rise to the challenge of restoring it to its former glory.

The last resident, Percy Holman died in 1969 of a heart attack while watching Redruth Rugby Club.

"We may own this house in name for few more years," 72-year-old Elizabeth said, "but it belongs to Camborne. I want it to be used by the people of the town."

To Reg's own admission, the house is too big for the couple's needs, so rather than live there most of the time they split their time between Rosewarne and their main home near the beach in Hayle.

"We used to live in a big house when we were in London but it got too much," the 73-year-old former advertising exec for Unilever, said. "We wanted to downsize but ended up upsizing again when we bought this house. It's just too big for the two of us. We're rattling around in here. But we've certainly put a lot of time, money and passion into it."

"For me it's always been about saving this place," Elizabeth added. "That's why I want local people to realise it's there and use it."

Rosewarne House is now available for hire for events including weddings. Thank you to Professor Michelle P. Brown for the history on Rosewarne House.